Tell us about your weekend ride

Blogged: https://thehippy.net/blog/chiltern-ridgeway-bikepacking-weekender/

@Squaredisk

Thanks, light reading for later :)

Enjoyed it. Nice pictures too.

Yeah, it was more of a 'touring tester' than going out and doing 10hrs on the TT bike at race pace on A roads... so, err, slightly more opportunity for stops and pics.

Having said that, now I want to stick knobbies back on one of my MTBs and ride the double with no kit strapped to the bike.

@NorthLondonLight coaxed me into my first Imperial Century.

Ace! Good stuff, that's a real milestone.

He's been getting a bit good lately, that feller!

Excellent. Which route? Circuits of the Ruislip borough boundary?

F(l)at tire festival in the Belgian Ardennes.

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Ruislip unfortunately along with Northwood, with which it formed a UDC, was subsumed into the London Borough of Hillingdon in 1965.
The electoral ward boundaries split Ruislip between the nonsensical 'West Ruislip' and the frankly insulting 'Eastcote & East Ruislip'. Never fear, from 2022, should the planned local elections take place, Ruislip will once again be a coherent whole.
I will attempt to upload a map of the route we took, which differs from the route we were notionally following.

Here's the map:
We did seem to have a problem escaping the gravitational pull of Ascot.
At the time, even through my persistent exertion I was certain we saw at least three sides of the racecourse. Later in an Italian cafe in Windsor, when we were refreshed by coffee and cheesecake, and had 'only' 25-ish miles to go, I broached the subject with @NorthLondonLight.
I enquired whether the route was an intentional update on Clint Eastwood's Coogan's Bluff,
where you will remember Eastwood's Sheriff character takes a taxi from JFK into central Manhattan.
'Say driver, how many Macy's you got in this town?'
'Just the one, Cowboy!'
'Well how come we've seen it three times?'

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Goodness me, @NorthLondonLight has quite regained his appetite for the miles!

And a metric century to follow yesterday with @mespilus. No navigation issues this time. I'd even post our late lunch pictures but technical issues forbids it.

I believe @mespilus completed another imperial century as he had to journey to/from the wilds of Ruislip.

The beauty of riding through Epping in the rain is that all the trails are empty, almost like a warm January.

Classic July tan.

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@NorthLondonLight

Here's yesterday's 76-miler:
76.75 miles 4:55'01 riding time 15.6 mph

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Yep:
11+ to Kew Bridge,
76+ on our sd ride,
11+ home from Kew Bridge,
9+ to mates for sd beers and return.

Incredibly hot ride yesterday,went down to West Witterings to ride along the beach.

Would recommend. With the bookings only, the roads aren't their usual traffic jam, but very quiet.

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Nice. Do you have a route?

This audax goes nearly there from London.

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55e473c5e4b0adbd82eb1118/t/5793c32bd482e99199cd060d/1469301547787/Cogidubnus+CC+2016+Route+Sheet.pdf

And back.

Depending where you start, I'd thoroughly recommend taking the Downs link all the way to Shoreham, then the coast route along to bognor and down that way. It's a hefty ride, but worth it.

If you're interested I can put something together, but road wise as mentioned above, down to peaslake, midhurst, (I'd go more east than petersfield) lavant, Chichester is the best way. At Chichester you pick up th Salterns Way which is off the road and takes you all the way to Witterings.

Don’t usually post my rides but I’d really recommend this route from yesterday.

https://strava.app.link/ju2qrB3yU8

Out to Rye and I think some of the Hell of the Ashdown back? Great Lanes.

"Gravel" ride with @Netakure and pals. Almost all off road.

https://www.komoot.com/tour/239616318?ref=wtd

Amazing gravel accompanied with some mountain biking down Rooley Moor, fucking big square cobbles. First time up to Peel Tower and another way to cross Scout Moor to visit the wind turbines.

Praise be to tubeless and bacon strips.

Not quite the week-end, but I rode to Cambridge today. It didn't really go to plan, but it was still a lovely ride. I mainly went there to play bike tag in Cambridge:

https://www.lfgss.com/comments/15474906/

I'd looked at the weather forecast and while I saw there would be a tailwind, I didn't notice the wind speed. I left the house at about 7:45 (later than I wanted because I'm the king of faff) and could already tell the wind was strong coming out of London. Riding along the A10, A1010, and following assorted A- and B-roads, at first I tried to go reasonably slowly to leave something in the tank, because I wanted to ride back. It didn't take long before I couldn't resist any more, though. I was pretty sure I wouldn't make it back to London, and so it proved, but I had a very fun wind-assisted ride up, getting to Ware in under an hour, and to Trumpington at about 10:30.

Then I did my tagging, bimbled around Cambridge for a few hours doing sightseeing, had a delicious meal at Vegan Vice (which wasn't at all good food for riding, but great vegan junk food), and started to ride south again, but it was brutal and I knew I wouldn't last long, so I thought I'd at least ride to Audley End or Bishop's Stortford or one of the other stations on that line. Eventually, it was Audley End, after taking in some fairly hilly bits around Elmdon, a beautiful area. I had to walk up one short section because the wind was blowing down too hard. Lots of very exposed bits, notably after the roundabout on the A505, turning south to Duxford, but also some older lanes that were clearly built with some protection against the prevailing wind.

Apart from the wind, the conditions were excellent; mostly overcast and warm, then sunny in the afternoon, and apart from a short rain shower on the way up, completely dry. The countryside along most of the route felt really dry, too, despite the rain of the last week. I didn't like that. Let's hope future years will be wetter again.

The most unpleasant thing was just before the turn to Little Shelford from Great Shelford, when, I can only guess because I didn't see the vehicle, some kind of aggregate lorry must have passed me going the other way, and I got a load of gravel in the face and eyes. It took a while to scrape that off. Not surprisingly, there was an enormous amount of stuff being blown about everywhere, but most of it didn't bother me much.

Still need to do more regular riding, will hopefully get into a weekly rhythm again.

Last Sunday we were touring in Wales, after a wet start of the day, we decided to turn around and set up camp again. After regaining some body warmth, the weather improved.

The wife decided she would stay put for the day, I on the other hand went for a loop around the Cambrian Mountains. Cracking groad route, with the bit at the top of the Elan Valley being one of the highlights!

More pictures and full route here.

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